The invention refers to a mechanical music box consisting of a set of pieces assembled between two identical frame halves and able to play, using analog techniques, one or more selected melodies in which the musical tone is obtained using a variable number of spring pins, which are alternately lifted and released to produce the desired musical notes.
This invention relates, but is not limited to, the type of mechanical musical box used in clockworks and jewelry, snuffboxes, singing birds, stuffed animals, boxes, display units, and various trinkets.
Traditional music box designs and manufacturing techniques require large complex factories or long and delicate assembly procedures using highly qualified staff and do not permit the mass scale production of a music box capable of playing any kind of repetitive tune, for only a few cents per unit.
A relatively simple to manufacture music box is described in Swiss Patent No. CH-586 441. This music box contains a cylinder (4) equipped with teeth (5) to work vibrating pins (3). In one of its embodiments, a spring (20) is placed inside the cylinder to get it to rotate. The music box pieces are placed in a case (1).
Though it works perfectly well, this music box has a number of problems. One problem is that although the case consists of two parts which make it possible to position and hold the music box components, these two parts are not identical. They therefore have to be made using two different molds, resulting in rather high manufacturing cost. Another problem is that the vibrating pins of the music box are integrally formed as either one or two combs. If, during production, one of the pins breaks or cannot be used for some other reason, the entire comb is unusable. A further problem is that the rewinding mechanism is firmly attached to the cylinder. This means that it cannot be attached in other positions, nor can it have a different shape. This music box, therefore, cannot be adapted and modified to different embodiments. Finally, it is impossible to add a power supply shaft from the music box to drive external components. All of these drawbacks indicate that the music box described in Swiss Patent No. CH-586 441 is largely inflexible and cannot be adapted to different uses.
Swiss Patent No. CH-256 248 describes a music box with individual vibrating tabs in place of the vibrating pins integrally formed as a comb, found in conventional music boxes. However, attaching the tabs in this music box is relatively complicated, making assembly expensive.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a music box that can be easily adapted to a variety of uses, play any type of repetitive tune and be manufactured on a mass scale at a lower cost than known music boxes.